hepcat

I agree. Adonai Mitchell would have done very well in this offense

I’m going to guess you didn’t watch the video. The only negative takeaway is that it was against the Bills 2nd stringers. Otherwise the offense looks a lot quicker and more organized than last year. Having Sanders and Matthews at TE might be Bryce’s saving grace this year.

He looks slow and lumbering. I don’t know if it’s a nagging injury or if he’s just not very quick off the line. He will need to be schemed open.

One thing is for sure, we all seem to agree Legette isn’t ready to make an impact and probably needs more time to develop. I’m not calling him a bust, yes I would have preferred the Panthers select a different WR because there were many that were obviously more pro ready than Legette, but I’m not going to call the guy a bust before he’s even taken a regular season snap yet. But he probably needs at least half a season to get acclimated. If Mingo struggles to make an impact once the games start to matter, I hope Legette is ready.

Not sure what game you watched but ISM won the returner job today. He’s not getting cut, he might go to short term IR if his injury is bad enough and that opens the door for Moore to get an early season roster spot. And I agree on Matthews and Raym. Matthews looks like a steal and he has a roster spot already sealed up. Raym might be a guy who they stash on the practice squad or he might outright take Cade Mays spot. Who knows. Good on Morgan for finding guys who can play either way.

It’s not going to be like last year. I don’t think the panthers are the worst team in the NFL this year. But this is still probably a bottom 10 roster talent wise and I think we need to prepare for another bad season, but the silver lining is this team might show some real promise going into 2025

He isn’t going anywhere this season unfortunately. Next year, probably

Shaq is a good player but the Panthers clearly made a mistake retaining Shaq over Bradberry.

I know. And he’s probably going to be the Colts WR2 by seasons end. Mitchell is gonna be a good one.

I am about 3% more optimistic about Bryce, Canales, and the trajectory of the Panthers than I was before the game. One drive against a team’s second stringers doesn’t say a ton but it was enough for us to be more encouraged than last year. If we see Bryce show similar results against a good Saints defense I will be bumping that number up significantly.

I agree that the pick was pretty questionable. Panthers had a need for a polished WR prospect and there were many other options, but choose the rawest prospect on the board. Panthers gonna Panther

Legette has been having a slow start to his rookie year. He’s probably 4th or 5th on the depth chart at this point and didn’t really make an impact in the preseason or training camp. I have a feeling the Panthers might try to open up a roster spot for a special teams player like ISM or David Moore by stashing Legette on IR with a mysterious practice injury to start his rookie year while he has more time to adjust to the pro game. Legette had limited play time in college and probably isn’t quite ready to compete at the pro level. They passed on more pro ready WRs to pick Legette so they have to eat this one until he’s ready.

I think ISM is a lock to make the roster as a returner. I could see them try to stash Coker on the practice squad or he will have a mysterious practice injury and end up on IR. I am not sure TMJ makes the roster at this point. David Moore either.

Sanders is a good player. But Jonathan Brooks is also gonna be big time. Texas had a very very good offense last year. I was bummed they didn’t pick Adonai Mitchell over Legette

ISM just won the returner job

I’m just listening to Steve Smith talk about how Bryce was a RPO QB in college, and how his rookie year he didn’t do any RPO in Frank Reich’s offense. We know how Frank was asked to add it by Tepper and he said no. I have to think that Steve has a line to Tepper’s ear and he had at least a tinge of influence telling Tepper that Reich’s offense wasn’t a fit for Bryce and later fired him. Steve is also talking about scheme fit and how it’s the most important thing for an offense and now Bryce will use RPO more under the new coaching staff and what a difference it will make. I have to think Steve wasn’t shy about telling Tepper these things last year.

TD to Jordan Matthews over the middle

It was Jordan Matthews

They had to work way too hard to score a TD including a 4th down conversion they definitely wouldn’t have gotten against starters but a TD is a TD and anything less against the Bills backups would have been embarrassing

2 at the most. One is for your 1st and 2nd string and the other is for your fringe roster and practice squad guys. But that could also be condensed into 4 quarters of 1 game. The bad attendance for preseason games could force the NFL to reevaluate it again. I could see them adding an 18th game to the regular season.

I Can’t Help It, the Panthers are BAD and Wanna Be Starting Somethin’. It’s Human Nature to start with the Man In The Mirror and make a change. Sometimes it’s not Black or White, but as long as they are Workin’ Day and Night, it begins with Michael Jackson to Beat It and Get Off The Wall.

I want to see one drive that scores a TD against the Bills backups and I’ll be satisfied. They go 3 and out a couple times against the Bills 2nd stringers and this team is f*cked again.

Well I think you’re being a little shortsighted but I get your point. I would liken keeping Wilks after the 2022 season to the 49ers keeping Mike Singletary in 2009. In 2008, the 49ers fired Mike Nolan after an 2-5 start, and Singletary was named interim head coach. He went 5-4 and the 49ers finished 7-9. The 49ers had talent but he wasn’t the right guy to win with that roster, but he developed the defense and kept them largely competitive until they took off under Harbaugh using many of the same players as Singletary had. I could have seen the Panthers following a similar trajectory to the post Singletary 49ers if they retained Wilks in 2023. They could have remained competitive and rebuilt the roster for a couple years before potentially hiring a next level coach to truly compete. But the Panthers made a series of absolutely mind boggling decisions after firing Matt Rhule that lead us to today. They traded away the team’s best offensive player for a 2nd round pick instead of trading away an overrated defensive end for 2 first round picks. They didn’t keep the interim head coach that won over the locker room and had success with a mediocre roster. Then they traded away the team’s best offensive player again to draft an undersized QB. If they had kept Wilks, traded Brian Burns instead, and didn’t trade CMC or DJ Moore, I could have seen a universe where the Panthers are a playoff team this year. But I think it’ll be a case of starting over yet again next year, and it does center around not keeping coaches who can at least remain competitive.

The mistake in the rebuild wasn’t hiring Matt Rhule. It was not hiring Steve Wilks who is the only coach to show any semblance of competence under David Tepper’s ownership. The Panthers could have used three years of him stabilizing the ship, developing the roster, and if he couldn’t get over the hump, hiring someone else at that time. It’s just frustrating to watch the team keep hiring the wrong guys.

McVay is a bad example. He took a perpetually terrible Rams team and turned them into a playoff contender in his first season. He played his starters in his first preseason when the team was still unproven and bad. A good team with veteran starters has a much stronger case to bench starters in preseason.